I know I’ve said it before, but now is where we’re gonna start again. I’ve kept pulling up this blog and enjoyed looking back at past experiences and the places they’ve grown to. It’s been wonderful. So, here’s to a new chapter. Continue reading
It has been way too long since I posted here. Been busy with lots of new things and I’m hoping to get into the details about the last few months in subsequent posts. I think it’s only appropriate that I start with a short post about our backpacking trip to Grouse Ridge, Ca. That appears to be the last place I left off. More to come very soon…
Kye
I’m super stoked to be heading out to the Sierras on a backpacking trip with some friends (and my dog, Stub-a-dub). Gonna be a blast and hoping to put together a nice little post with pictures afterward.
Kyle
Take a minute to check out the new area of this blog: “Things We Eat…“. You can click on the tab at the top of this page to navigate there. It will be a place to discuss whats going on in my kitchen, in your kitchen, and with the things we eat. I hope you enjoy it…
Kyle
Photo from the book "The Family Meal"
After honing my cooking skills more in the past year, I have noticed many of my friends doing much of the same. Now I don’t know if this is just me noticing more or if there is an actual increase. It could be the former or a little of both. I don’t know. Either way, I’m really happy about the increasing amount of people having a good time in the kitchen and preparing food for themselves and people they care about. Overall, this is great for our health, our environment, and our community as a whole. When we make our own food; we know what’s in our food. When we know what’s in our food; we care what goes into our food.
If you are a novice beginning to wander into the kitchen or somebody who just invested in a new set of cookware (THAT’S ME!), then I have a quick recommendation that has been very helpful for me in the past months of increased gastronomy. It is a cookbook that I kind of wandered into. It is titled The Family Meal: Home Cooking with Ferran Adriá. 
This book has just blown my mind! First off, it’s very easy to use and has hundreds and hundreds of pictures so you can see what things should look like. This has been indispensable for somebody like me who is doing these recipes for the first time. Secondly, the recipes found here are not hugely time intensive. They’re arranged into three course meals and each grouping is designed to take less than two hours.
Lastly, this book is from one of the best restaurants and chefs in the world. Ferran Adriá’s three Michelin star resaurant, elBulli, won top restaurant in the world five years in a row. That’s a pretty big deal! The basis for this cook book is that before each night of dinner service at elBulli, a group of designated staff would prepare a dinner and then the entire crew would gather in the kitchen to eat the prepared meal. This book records 31 days of those meals. The emphasis is on cooking relatively basic meals superbly. Adriá’s philosophy here is that a staff who eats good food together, ultimately prepares better food when the food service begins.
I highly recommend this book and I look forward to seeing more of my friends in the kitchen! Below is a clip from the elBulli website that will give you a glimpse as to what they are preparing in 2014.
Closing by choice in 2010, they plan to reopen in 2014. Good luck getting in!
Kyle
From the ††† Tumblr page
I had the good fortune to check out two shows at Slim’s last week. The first being the hip hop group Doomtree, from Minnesota, and the second being † † † (Crosses), from Sacramento. The latter is an alternative rock group formed by Chino Morreno (Deftones, Team Sleep), Shaun Lopez (Far), and Scott Chuck. I quite enjoyed myself at the show and was rather surprised at their clean and rehearsed performance. For being such a new band, with about seven members (including two drummers), they were tight and knew exactly where they were in the show. I suppose some of this can be attributed to the longtime careers of its members and the fact that this was the last stop on their four-stop California tour. All in all, a great show to be at and Chino seemed more alive and fresh than I’d seen him in years. Do check them out if they come to your town.
Here are a couple of teasers that I shot on my phone…enjoy…
Kyle
We just wrapped the 10th annual Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival. And what a festival it was. SYRCL presents this festival each year and it truly is one of the great highlights of my calendar. For the past eight years of its existence, I’ve worked as a technician and then more recently in the role of assistant technical director.
The ambience of this festival is great and you just couldn’t pick a better town city than Nevada City to host it. The old gold rush era buildings and the rustic venues really add to the overall feeling here.
This year we introduced two high definition projection venues to the seven venue festival. They looked tremendous! You could absolutely see the difference in image quality. In addition, we went totally digital with our playback system, utilizing AJA’s Ki Pro digitization unit. These were kindly lent to the festival by local company, AJA.
All in all, I’m always a bit sad when it ends. Many of the people I work with have been attending the fest for ten years and this is the only time during the year that we see each other. The added reunion factor is a plus!
I say all of this so that you’ll consider going next year. It’s just an amazing experience and every person that I’ve convinced to go has continued going on their own accord. My parents have even made festival weekend passes their anniversary gift to each other for the past several years. To find details, visit the website here or simply talk to me and I’ll give you an earful of details and great reasons to go. You won’t regret it!
Kyle
It’s day 6 of not smoking cigarettes and I wanted to say a big “Thank you!” to everybody who has encouraged me. It really has helped and I truly appreciate it. I’ve had some rough spots but they’ve always been manageable by thinking of those who I care about. Again, thanks very much…
Kyle
I’ve smoked cigarettes for far too long. It started as a thing to do when I was playing music in bands and I’m sure we thought we were pretty cool. It continued when I began film school and had hours of time to kill while processing movies or standing on a film set. It didn’t help that everybody else in film school was dealing with these “down periods” in the same way. By that I mean standing around, smoking, and shooting the shit.
Let me be clear on one thing: I love the sensations that come with smoking. I love the smoke, I love the burning sound it makes, I love the occupation of my hands that it provides, I love how it keeps me company as I ponder life late at night, and I certainly love the calming properties it provides.
Well that chapter just ended four days ago and I couldn’t be happier
It hasn’t been easy, but it also hasn’t been nearly as hard as I thought it would be. Granted, I have a 21mg Nicotine patch stuck to my arm as I write this. The pangs still come calling and I deal with these. Usually I manage these by taking some deep breaths and rubbing the patch on my arm. I’ve quit in the past and luckily I retained the tools to deal with this. The thing that has changed is that I just want to stop. I don’t want this damn habit anymore. Recent events have shown me that it’s time. I want this. I want other things that don’t come easily with smoking. So it’s time.
I write this down, probably, as a coping method, but I also want others to know that you won’t see me smoking anymore. Something about writing this down makes it more permanent for me. I hope others will see this and will also consider doing the same. Most of us know we should stop but think it will be too hard to deal with. I’m here to tell you it’s manageable. Not easy, but manageable.
I’ll leave you with this positive experience from this morning. Walking to work today I noticed something very positive. I walked up the slope to UCSF and got to the top of the hill without once coughing or hacking. This hasn’t happened in literally years and it’s always been a point of bother to me as I knew where the irritation was coming from. Today, I can breathe a bit easier and that makes me very, very happy.
Kyle
The holiday season brings a lot of things out of the woodwork: our family, our friends, and often some of the old items, stuffed deep into the recesses of the family home. This is one such example of the latter.
After my mother pulled out an old school bag from the college years, I found this little quote that I had written down for myself. I was quite happy with my younger self for saving this little snippet for future digestion. I find the quote as interesting now as I must have years ago and I hope you enjoy.
Piece of paper found in an old school bag.
Kyle
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